Psychiatric symptoms in self-poisoning patients

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. B. Newson-Smith ◽  
S. R. Hirsch
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
General Health ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Initial Interview ◽  
Low Prevalence ◽  
State Examination

SynopsisSelf-poisoning patients admitted to hospital were studied for persistence of psychiatric symptoms over a 3-month period and evaluated at 3 points in time with the General Health Questionnaire and the Present State Examination. Symptoms were identified which had a high or low prevalence at 3-month follow-up. GHQ and PSE scores correlated at 0·8. The implications of the study are discussed, particularly the earlier need for out-patient help in those who had a moderate or high number of symptoms at initial interview.

Psychiatric Effects of Alternate Day Steroid Therapy

1981 ◽  
Vol 138 (6) ◽  
pp. 504-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Cordess ◽  
Marshal Folstein ◽  
Daniel Drachman
Keyword(s):  
Myasthenia Gravis ◽  
Present State ◽  
Steroid Therapy ◽  
General Health ◽  
Neuromuscular Disorders ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Emotional Disorder ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
State Examination

SummaryThe prevalence of emotional disorder in a total of 72 patients suffering from myasthenia gravis or from peripheral neuromuscular disorders was assessed, using the General Health Questionnaire and Present State Examination.Approximately half the patients were being treated with an alternate day regime of prednisone, receiving high dosage one day and low the next. Emotional disorder was found to be less prevalent among these patients than among patients not on steroids. The significance of the finding is discussed.

Polytomous logistic regression analysis of the General Health Questionnaire and the Present State Examination

1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 755-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. W. Wilmink ◽  
T. A. B. Snijders
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Regression Model ◽  
Present State ◽  
General Health ◽  
Logistic Regression Model ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Polytomous Logistic Regression ◽  
State Examination

SynopsisFirst, two examples of dichotomous logistic regression analysis are presented. The probability of being a psychiatric case according to the Present State Examination is predicted from the total score on the General Health Questionnaire and from the general practitioner's judgement on the presence of a mental health problem. Subjects were 292 primary care attenders. Results are compared with those from prior studies.Next, the extension to the polytomous case is demonstrated. The probability of being at any given level of the Index of Definition (computed from PSE data) is estimated from the General Health Questionnaire total score by an ordered polytomous logistic regression model. Several applications of the polytomous logistic regression model are discussed. These range from estimating the proportion of psychiatric cases among individuals who refuse to be interviewed to the formulation of sampling schemes which can be expected to reduce costs while at the same time yielding optimal information for testing specific hypotheses.

Validation of the General Health Questionnaire in a young community sample

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael H. Banks
Keyword(s):  
General Health ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Continuous Variable ◽  
General Factor ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Relative Independence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Misclassification Rates ◽  
State Examination

SYNOPSISValidity coefficients of the 30-item, 28-item and 12-item versions of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) were determined by comparison with the Present State Examination (PSE) in a sample of 200 17-year-olds. The PSE classified 7 people (3·5%) as cases, although only 47% were identified as free of symptoms. Misclassification rates, sensitivity and specificity values are presented for different cutting scores for the three versions of the GHQ. The GHQ-28 had superior values, especially with a cutting score of 5/6; the GHQ-12 with a 2/3 cutting score also had acceptable values. All versions of the GHQ correlated highly with the PSE Index of Definition and total scores, providing support for the treatment of GHQ scores as a continuous variable in this kind of population. Correlations between sub-scales of the GHQ-28 give further evidence for a general factor and the relative independence of the social dysfunction sub-scale.

Severity of Psychiatric Disorder and the 30-Item General Health Questionnaire

1979 ◽  
Vol 134 (6) ◽  
pp. 609-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Finlay-Jones ◽  
Elaine Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorder ◽  
General Health ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Threshold Score ◽  
Adverse Life Event ◽  
Chronic Disorders ◽  
State Examination

SummaryThe 30-item General Health Questionnaire misclassified 26 per cent of respondents in two samples of women who were interviewed by a psychiatrist using the Present State Examination. False negatives were likely to be women with chronic disorders, particularly anxiety states. False positives were likely to be distressed by severe physical illness, a recent adverse life event, or loneliness. Applying a higher threshold score to their GHQ, responses would help to separate those with a diagnosable psychiatric disorder from those in states of distress.

Detecting psychiatric disorders in medical practice using the General Health Questionnaire. Why do cut-off scores vary?

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Van Hemert ◽  
M. Den Heijer ◽  
M. Vorstenbosch ◽  
J. H. Bolk
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
General Health ◽  
Roc Analysis ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Area Under The Curve ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
State Examination ◽  
Discriminatory Capacity

SynopsisIn this study we assessed the accuracy of the General Health Questionnaire in detecting psychiatric disorders in general medical out-patients. A total of 290 newly referred patients were interviewed with the Present State Examination. Prior to the interview, 112 patients completed the full GHQ-60, 100 completed the GHQ-30 and 78 completed the GHQ-12. Data from the first group were used to study the full GHQ-60, together with the GHQ-30 and and GHQ-12, when disembedded from the full questionnaire. In a comparison between the disembedded and the separate versions of the GHQ-30 and GHQ-12 we observed considerable variation in the cut-off scores where a certain sensitivity and specificity was attained. In ROC-analysis, the versions were not materially different in their discriminatory capacity (area under the curve). The use of different criteria to define a ‘case’ demonstrated that case severity was another source of increasing cut-off scores. Our data demonstrate that the use of disembedded or separate versions of the questionnaire, together with variation in the case criteria can be a major explanation for variation in cut-off scores that was observed in previous studies.

Reshaping the Psyche the Concurrent Improvement in Appearance and Mental State after Rhinoplasty

1988 ◽  
Vol 152 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Robin ◽  
J. B. Copas ◽  
A. B. Jack ◽  
A. C. Kaeser ◽  
P. J. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
General Health ◽  
Marked Improvement ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Elective Surgery ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Facial Appearance ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Symptom Scores ◽  
Sorting Test

Rhinoplasty patients and matched elective-surgery controls completed the Facial Appearance Sorting Test, the General Health Questionnaire, a Repertory Grid and the Masculinity/Femininity Scale. Rhinoplasty applicants perceived appearance similarly to, and downrated their own appearance to the same extent as, controls. Impaired appearance and psychiatric symptoms are integral parts of the ‘rhinoplasty applicant syndrome’, but the degree to which they occur is not positively correlated. Interviews and tests were repeated 6 months after operation, when marked improvement in appearance was reported by the rhinoplasty patients, associated with the reduction of psychiatric-symptom scores. Control subjects showed no change.

Inter-generational Conflict and Psychiatric Symptoms

1986 ◽  
Vol 149 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fakhr El-Islam ◽  
Sanaá I. Abu-Dagga ◽  
Taha H. Malasi ◽  
Mohamed A. A. Moussa
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
General Health ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Apparent Discrepancy ◽  
Generational Conflict ◽  
Generational Conflicts

Secondary school pupils and their parents were investigated using the scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ–28) and by a questionnaire designed to study attitudes involved in inter-generational conflict in psychiatric patients. Parent-pupil and interparental conflict in answers to the attitude questionnaires were taken as measures of inter-generational and intra-generational conflicts respectively. The former significantly exceeded the latter. Parent-student conflict was higher when the students involved were females, Kuwaiti, or had less educated fathers. The tendency of the number of reported GHQ symptoms to be higher in members of families with higher inter-generational conflict did not reach statistical significance. There is an apparent discrepancy between this finding and the prominence of inter-generational conflict in clinical material.

Types of social support as predictors of psychiatric morbidity in a cohort of British Civil Servants (Whitehall II Study)

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 881-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. STANSFELD ◽  
R. FUHRER ◽  
M. J. SHIPLEY
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
General Health ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Psychiatric Morbidity ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Good Mental Health

Background. Few studies have examined prospectively both the direct and buffering effects of types of social support and social networks on mental health. This paper reports longitudinal associations between types of social support and psychiatric morbidity from the Whitehall II study.Methods. Social support was measured by the Close Persons Questionnaire and psychiatric morbidity by the General Health Questionnaire at baseline (1985–1988) and at first follow-up (1989) in 7697 male and female London-based civil servants aged 35–55 years at baseline. The cohort was followed up and baseline measures were used to predict psychiatric disorder measured by the General Health Questionnaire at second follow-up (1991–1993).Results. Longitudinal analyses showed that low confiding/emotional support in men and high negative aspects of close relationships in men and women were associated with greater risk of psychiatric morbidity even after adjustment for baseline General Health Questionnaire score. There was no evidence of a buffering effect among men or women who experienced life events or chronic stressors. Controlling for a personality measure of hostility did not affect the observed relations.Conclusions. The present findings illustrate that different types of support are risk factors for psychological distress and that they operate in different ways for men and women. Direct effects of emotional support are predictive of good mental health in men and negative aspects of close relations predict poor mental health in both men and women. Emotional support is predictive of good mental health in women whereas, confiding alone is not.

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